MURFREESBORO — The ouster suit to remove jailed Sheriff Robert Arnold from office will require a judge from outside the county after the local judges recused themselves, an official confirmed.

"That's true," said Chancellor Howard Wilson, whose court is the one where 12 plaintiffs filed their ouster suit at the Rutherford County Judicial Building on the north side of the Square in downtown Murfreesboro. "Once that happens, then as presiding judge, it’s incumbent upon me to find a judge in a contiguous district to the 16th Judicial District."

The 16th Judicial District includes Rutherford and Cannon counties.

Arnold, meanwhile, is locked up and awaiting a Feb. 7 jury trial in Nashville for a 13-count federal indictment accusing him, his uncle John Vanderveer and Joe Russell, the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office accounting chief, of illegally profiting from inmates through the sale of JailCigs, an electronic cigarettes business.

The Rutherford County sheriff had to be detained a week ago after a six-hour hearing in which U.S. Magistrate Alistair Newbern revoked Arnold's $250,000 pretrial release bond and found probable cause that he had committed domestic assault, witness tampering and intimidation of his wife on Labor Day at their Murfreesboro home.

Judge Newbern also expressed concern that the sheriff had abused the authority of his office, including his interaction with a deputy responding to the domestic assault report. The judge further mentioned retaliation of at least one fired employee who provided information to federal authorities in the JailCigs investigation. The fired employee mentioned in court is Virgil Gammon, the former third in command at the Sheriff's Office.

The judge ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to detain Arnold after her ruling, and he put his wrists behind his back to be handcuffed before being escorted out of Newbern's courtroom in Nashville. The U.S. Marshals Service brought Arnold over to be booked at the Grayson County, Ky., jail.

A day after Arnold was booked, 12 residents from Rutherford County filed the ouster suit to remove Arnold from office, while he continues to be locked up and earn an annual salary of $127,078. Arnold also awaits the civil case to proceed once Chancellor Wilson locates a judge to preside over the process.

"If no judge in a contiguous district from ours accepts, then we have to call the Administrative Office of the Courts, and they'll take over the process from there," said Wilson, noting that this office that's based in Davidson County typically appoints senior judges to preside over local cases such as this one.

Judges are not required to communicate a reason for recusing themselves, said Wilson, who decided to say why he chose not to preside over an ouster suit of Arnold filed by Murfreesboro attorney Michelle Blaylock-Howser.

"My former associate is in the law firm that filed the ouster suit, so I obviously had to recuse (myself)," Wilson said. " I recuse on all their cases, not just Sheriff Arnold's."